Kenya police tear gas protesters over Nairobi park development plan

Riot police fired tear gas to break up a protest outside Nairobi National Park after demonstrators gathered against a development plan tied to an expanded animal orphanage and a parking area for more than 1,000 vehicles. Officers detained at least nine people on Monday, including former Chief Justice David Maraga, as the confrontation escalated at the park’s main entrance in Nairobi.

The march drew environmental activists and other protesters who said the project would push into protected public land. Signs carried by demonstrators read, “Nature is not vacant land,” a blunt rebuke to a plan they portrayed as another intrusion of urban development into a national ecological asset. Activist Nyaguthii Chege said the park was “once again under threat,” reflecting the urgency felt by conservation advocates as police moved in.

The Kenya Wildlife Service defended the redevelopment, saying the Nairobi Animal Orphanage has operated on the site since 1964 and occupies 7.4 acres within the park. The service said the orphanage is being relocated to a new 89-hectare site opposite Bomas of Kenya, with the move intended to improve rescue, rehabilitation, visitor experience and conservation education. In its account, no park land would be lost.

The dispute has wider resonance because Nairobi National Park is one of the few wildlife reserves inside a capital city. The park sits about 10 kilometers from Nairobi’s Central Business District and is known for rhinos, lions, buffalo and leopards with the city skyline visible behind them, a scene that has long made it both a national icon and a tourism draw. It was gazetted on December 16, 1946, making it Kenya’s first and oldest national park, and it covers roughly 117 square kilometers.

Maraga’s arrest gave the protest extra political weight. His appearance signaled that the fight over the park has crossed from environmental concern into a broader argument about public land, elite decision-making and the limits of dissent in Kenya. He had already joined Nairobi street protests in June 2025 during demonstrations linked to the Gen Z movement, and his presence outside the park underscored how conservation disputes can quickly become tests of civic space as well as land use.